Always Twins
by LycanthropeSpirit
Summary: Post-ME3, destroy ending. Spoilers are basically everywhere. John and Nymeria Shepard made it out alive, but what comes next for them? After the devastation and horrors of war, can they both settle down with their partners and live a normal life? FShep/Liara MShep/Tali Most characters either appear or get mentioned
1. Chapter 1

Always twins

**This trilogy really did a number on me. I barely made it off the floor after finishing 3. And of course, everything has to be done with the twins XD I chose the destroy ending, because I knew that everything I did wrong could be resolved. **

**(John)**

I stepped back after watching the cargo bay door of the Normandy slowly close. It hurt to send Nymeria and Tali like that, but I don't want them to die. As I turned to run to the conduit, I heard a dull thud behind me. Please no...

"Nymeria, I swear to God." I sighed, turning and watching the Normandy vanish into the distance and the red-haired Spectre that saluted it. Her face was half happy, half upset. "Why didn't you leave with the others?"

"Sorry, Commander." She grinned, walking upto me and placing her hands on my shoulders. "I'm your twin. I'm staying by your side no matter what."

"You could die."

"No. Matter. What." I had to smile. And pull my sister into a hug. Our touching moment was disruped by a bright red beam. The two of us were on the ground in seconds. My ears rang, but I heard gunfire. And somebody attempting to talk to me. My memory went patchy after that. My sister helping me to the conduit. I wish I had the superhuman implants she had. The Illusive man shot Anderson. I shot the Illusive man, and now my sister and I are stood with two choices. Control the Reapers, or destroy all Synthetics. I'm in pretty bad shape, she's healed up. "You know what must happen, John."

"I know." I groaned, pulling myself out of her grasp and stumbling forwards. "The Illusive Man was right, but that is not an option anymore." A wrong step sent me to my knees. The pain is unbearable! The same hands found my shoulders. My twin stared at me with deep green eyes.

"We need to win this. Tali needs you." The mere mention of her name made the pain worth it. My adorable Quarian.

"And Liara needs you." I poked the bridge of her nose, where barely a fraction of her freckles were, and pushed myself up. I gripped her hand. Having a sibling can make everything so calm. The walk was antagonising. I coughed up a bit of blood. "You ready?" 

"I've been with you since you came back to life. I've always known you existed, but you didn't know about me. It was a bright day for me when I met you."

"Nymeria, you're one of the best things that happned to me." I slipped slightly, and she compensated by sliding an arm around my waist and keeping me upright. "We've always been twins, and we're always going to be." Standing infront of the conduit, we both raised our pistols. "Ready?"

"Ready." We fired three shots each. The power began to collapse. "Holy hell." I knew it was useless to back away. I watched it explode. "John, get down!" My sister tackled me to the ground and everything flashed white before going dark.

I woke up in complete darkness. And something sticky. Attempting to move was beyond painful. Even moving a finger sent rapid shocks up my arm. I laid there for what seemed like hours, trying to regain my senses. Something didn't seem right. I attempted to speak, but only managed a croak. How long have we been out? My throat is completely dry. Oh God, are we going to die down here? Another period of time passed, but I saw some light. And heard some talking.

"This is depressing." 

"Grow a pair, corporal. Both Shepards are here somewhere. We need to find them." Is that Ashley?

"Williams, I'm certain that nobody would have survived a blast like that." It is! But as far as I can see, we're trapped under a pile of wreckage. And I'm worried that Nymeria hasn't talked. Another attempt to speak turned into a coughing fit. "Wait, did you hear that?"

"What are you hearing ghosts now?" Why isn't Ashley on the Normandy? Groaning from the pain, I reached out to find something that makes noise. Okay, I'm on my front.

"I don't think that ghosts cough, LC." My hand tighted around a pipe. Fuck this pain. I lifted it as far as possible and struck the closest thing. A dull metal sound rang out. "I heard something else!"

"I heard it too." I managed to hit it a second time, but dropped the pipe and heard it roll away. "It has to be them!" The light shone through again and focused on my face. I looked up as it faded slightly. "John! You're both here!" Nymeria. Thank the Maker. "Drake, go and get the others. We got 2 in crtical condition." Critical doesn't surprise me. The fact that we're alive surprises me. When Ash made it in, she had to stop and breathe deeply. "Dear God. Shepard, just stay with me, okay?" I nodded and put my head down. I could use some sleep.

**Well, shorter than a chapter should be, but it sets the scene. I'll (try to) make it happier in the next chapter. **


	2. Chapter 2

Always twins

Chapter 2

**I should have mentioned this before, but theres going to be some pretty heavy mentions of serious bodily harm and blood. It really pains me to hurt my characters XD**

**(John)**

I woke up, drenched in sweat and panicked. He soft light hit my face and I calmed down almost instantly. It's fine. I'm safe. I looked around, completely thankful that the pain was gone. So, I must be in some kind of hospital, right? Sitting up wasn't allowed. Apparently. I looked at my arms and found a few IV's embedded in there. How bad was it? There's nobody else in the room. I sighed and continued staring at the ceiling. I can't remember what the date was before. I need to sit up. I looked again to the IV lines and noticed that they were looped around a hook. It was a careful procedure to not rip the needles out of my arms, but I did manage to sit up in the end. This is definitely a hospital. And I'm on my own.

"Hello?" I called, hoping to hear another person's voice. Unfortunately, I didn't. I wanted to get up, too, but I didn't know the extent on my injuries. Maybe theres an intercom nearby. Not that I'd be able to get up and use it. What the hell did happen after the explosion? Are the Reapers gone? Did anybody die? I laid back down and closed my eyes, trying to picture what happened. I remember the explosion, the blinding light, Nymeria shielding me- I sat up again in shock. Where is my sister. The door slid open with the tell tale 'whoosh' and a doctor stepped through, almost dropping her clipboard when she spotted me.

"Commander Shepard! You're awake!" I nodded dumbly and swallowed. "We were expecting you to be out for another week!"

"Where's my sister?" I caught the worried look on her face before she turned her omni-tool on and pressed a few buttons. "Where is she?"

"I don't think I should be the one to fill you in, Commander." The doctor said, looking through the open doorway and nodding to somebody. Liutenant-commander Ashley Williams strode into the room with a smile on her face and light in her eyes.

"I've been waiting for you." She smiled, almost running to my side and gently hugging me. "Welcome back, Commander Shepard." I hugged back, just because she was someone familiar. Then I hugged tighter, because we were both alive. She gave a laugh. "I missed you, too John. It was really upsetting to see you injured." The doctor almost voiced her concerns about when my friend nudging my legs over and sitting on the bed.

"What happened?" With a sigh, Ash shifted a little and waited for the doctor to leave the room.

"Well, the Reapers are gone. So are the Mass relays." Really? I guess it really did mean all Synthetic life. "I'm pretty glad that I hopped out of the Normandy. Everybody's fine, well almost everybody." I felt my heart sink. "I didn't realise anybody could go so pale." She joked.

"Is it Tali?" My mind flashed back to the last time I saw her. Almost completely coated in blood.

"No, it's not Tali. She's fine." I breathed out, but the sense of worry didn't leave. "It's EDI. She's stopped working." That is what I was worried about. All Synthetic life. I felt a pang of guilt at that. The Geth were already gone, and the Reapers were. But the only person that I wanted to stay behind was EDI. And something else struck my mind.

"What happened to Nymeria?" Her expression turned grim. I really did feel like I was going to throw up.

"Don't you remember? She was at least 50% Synthetic." Oh my god. "It's not looking good at all. She's currently on life support and the doctors have been attepting to rebuild what was destroyed. Her spine's almost completely gone, the biotic implant's gone, the various enhancements to her bones, organs and brain are gone, too."

"Wait, wouldn't that mean mine were gone, too?"

"They were. It's just that yours are a hell of a lot less complicated than hers." She paused, looked at my foot and looked back at me. "She took most of the blast. If she hadn't, you'd be dead."

"To be honest, I'd rather be dead than have my sister hurt." She smiled, got up and grabbed the blanket.

"I did say _most_ of the blast." I gave her a questioning look, and Ash removed the sheet. Wait, where's my foot? Theres nothing below my knee. "Sorry, Commander. You're going to have a limp." She smiled again, just as the doctor came back into the room.

"We are hopefully going to be working on building a prosthetic leg for you, Shepard. We're just busy at the moment."

"My sister is going to be okay, right?" That was when she started to avoid my eyes.

"We're not sure. It's really touch and go on if she'll make it or not. It would be a great help if we had the original schematics for the enhancements. Her body adjusted to them and it's going to be impossible for her to live without them." I sighed and thought on it.

"Can I see her?"

"I'm afraid you can't today, Commander. Nymeria is still under very heavy medication. We have almost finished rebuilding her Synthetics, but the blast evicerated her back. We're going to have to completely replace the skin." I almost threw up again. "Although, if you are feeling upto it, I am able to discharge you today. We will inform you about when you should come back so we can work on your new leg." The doctor left again, leaving me in an uncomfortable silence with Ashley.

"Where are we?"

"The Citadel." I gave a questioning look. "Theres wasn't any real damage done. You've been out cold for a week. Everybody moved in to clear up and we're back to the Serpent nebula." I nodded dumbly and looked back to my missing leg. "Want me to go and grab you some clothes?" I nodded again and watched her leave. The Reapers are gone. Everything has to get better, right?

(The Normandy)

"We're good to go?"

"Almost. We just have to temporarily put Glyph into the Normandy's systems." Joker winced again, not wanting to hear anything other than EDI's voice at the helm of his ship. The rest of the crew were filing about, finishing repairs, checking on anybody who was hurt and getting ready for the trip to the citadel. Garrus was having the worst time out of everybody.

"Liara, you've been going for atleast 40 hours straight. You need to rest."

"I don't have time to rest, Garrus. I have to make sure that everything's working, that we're okay to make the trip, that we have enough fuel, that-" Rolling his eyes, the Turian moved forward and grabbed the Asari's shoulders, cutting her off mid-sentence.

"Liara. Listen to me. You have to get some sleep. It's not good for you to be running around like this." He was hoping that trying to convince her for the past hour would finally pay off. "The nearest functional mass relay is 2 hours away. Then it's going to take another 2 hours to get to the Citadel. You can get some sleep in that time." Of course he was lying. It would take 2 days to get to the Citadel. But she didn't need to know that. All Liara needed was some sleep.

"But I need to keep an eye on everything."

"I can take care of it."

"What about Tali?"

"I'm sure that Chakwas can handle her." With a defeated sigh, Liara put the datapad down and started walking towards her room.

"Wake me up as soon as we get to the Citadel, okay?"

"I will, don't worry."

**I always say that I'm going to make something happier, but I always fail at it. **


	3. Chapter 3

Always Twins

Chapter 3

**Okay, I promise that everything's going to get happier from this point. If it doesn't,you can form an angry mob and do what the Dark Brotherhood did to Lucien Lachance. I might just regret saying that. **

**(John)**

I placed a hand on the window, watching the slow rise and fall of Nymeria's back as the stitches strained. Atleast the freckles are still there. Where would she be without the freckles? I cracked a smile at that. Almost every day was a mention of the orange freckles that covered 95% of her body. The only place they weren't occupying was her face, with the exception of the bridge of her nose.

"I'm reducing the volume of anesthetic to zero." I've come here for a week straight, hoping that they would let her wake up. Her injuries have mostly healed. I'm still glad that Cerberus is dead and gone. All the trouble they've caused me is barely a comparison to what they've done to my sister in her lifetime. I didn't even know I had a sibling until Cerberus actually brought me back. It was more of a chance meeting on the Citadel. I wasn't sure at first, but as she continued being part of my crew, I found that having a twin was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. It wasn't until a few months later that I heard what happened to her. I grew up in space, but Nymeria was on Earth. Cerberus stole her away from my Mother and Father just as they were leaving. From what she gathered, they were going to make her into the ultimate weapon. Control chip that activated when somebody said her real name, Asari Matriarch level Biotics, Krogan DNA to give her physical enhancements and metal in her bones that made her almost indestructable. Something did go wrong in the process, though. Everytime she attempted to use her Biotics, they literally started to tear her apart.

"Commander, you can go in now." I nodded and gripped the crutch under my right arm, using it to walk into the room and lower myself into a chair they gave me. Apparently, they were working on my leg. The room was really white. It was almost blinding. I was tempted to turn the lights off to see if it was glow in the dark paint. I sighed, placed the crutch on the floor and gently took my sister's hand in one of my own. She was tortured in that damn facility for 14 years. Thankfully, the Alliance raided it and she escaped, turning to living on the streets for a couple of years before an Officer found her and drafted her. Makes me kinda jealous that she got to N7 rank before me.

"It's been a hell of a ride." I smiled, leaning on the bed slightly. "You're one of the best people to have walked into my life, Nymeria."

"Even when I punched you?" I jumped slightly when she spoke, a smile spreading across her face. An emerald green eye opened to the light, suprisingly unaffected by the bright lights. Ah yes. She walked upto me, demanded my name and punched me when I hesitated.

"Especially then. Don't worry. Got my own back." Without hesitation, I attempted a hug. It was kinda hard since she couldn't really move.

"Was it that bad?" Nymeria grumbled, shifting around.

"Well, all of your Synthetics had to be replaced." That made her wince. "And your back was completely destroyed."

"No wonder I feel sore." A glance down gave her a guilty look. "Sorry that I didn't save all of you." I patted the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry that you got hurt." She rolled her eyes and pushed herself up a bit. I tipped my head back to avoid seeing anything I'd regret. "Might want to wait until you get a shirt."

"Maybe. But I'm bored of staying in one spot."

"You could still be injured." I heard a 'pshh'. I closed my eyes to be safe. Never wants to admit that it hurts.

"John, we are able to- dear God, Nymeria! You shouldn't be getting up!"

"But I'm fine!"

"You could still have some serious injuries!"

"I've been hurt before!" I sighed and waved the doctor off.

"I've been through this before with her. The best you can do is get her to cover up." Thankfully, it only took a minute. I looked when I got the all good, finding that she was stood over me with a tank top and pair of cargo pants on. "Finally."

"Stop being such a wuss."

"I don't exactly want to see you shirtless."

"Thats what they all say." I couldn't help but smile up at her. I did notice the slight pained look on her face whenever she moved, but I didn't mention it. Nymeria has her pride.

"As I was saying, John, we are able to start fitting your prosthetic limb." I smiled and started to get up. My sister helped me up and I gave her a smile in return. After gripping the crutch under my arm, I started to follow the doctor. "Nymeria, you stay here."

"Why?"

"Because you're still injured."

"Does it look like I'm injured?"

"Still fighting a losing battle, doctor." I grinned, leaving the room and expecting the to follow.

(Nymeria)

I almost hissed in pain with each step. I'm not going to show how bad it is. It feels like my back and legs are on fire. And I know what that feels like. I've been in a fire before. Long story. I might tell it to possible future generations. I grinned when I remebered the promise to Liara about lots of little blue children.

"What are you grinning about?" John questioned, nudging my arm. I jumped slightly, but it didn't affect me at all.

"Just something I said to Liara."

"What was it?" I made a small 'psh' noise.

"Like hell I'm going to tell you."

"Oh? Was it _that _kind of thing?" I elbowed him and made him laugh. "I'll just annoy you later."

"Oh, please. Nobody is more annoying than me."

"You can say that again." I attempted a second elbow, but he skipped forward and dodged it. And he almost fell over.

"Commander, please don't trip and hurt yourself." The doctor sighed as we entered the next room. With a grin, I motioned for him to enter the room first.

"Thank you kindly, miss." He tipped his invisible hat and hobbled in. I'm glad to see that we're still friends. I'd probably lose my mind without my brother. When I walked in, he was already sat on the bed and the doctor had a plastic leg in her hand.

"You know, we could totally improve that leg."

"We are not putting rockets in it." I rolled my eyes.

"I was thinking more along the lines of a hidden knife." He mulled it over as the doctor fitted the fake limb.

"Thats actually a really good idea." I held my hand out so he could get up. I walked halfway around him to check the fit. As if I knew what I was doing. Before he could even get used to using it, a flash of purple went past my face, barreling into John and knocking him over. I blinked a few times before looking. Just to make sure I was still awake. My confusion turned to relief and happiness when I saw that it was Tali. After the initial confusion, my brother held onto her as tightly as possible. I turned to the door just in time to catch Liara. With a laugh, I spun around, holding her tightly. The pain came back tenfold, though I didn't let it show. When I stopped spinning, my girlfriend buried her face in my neck.

"You're such an idiot." she mumbled. "You could have died."

"If I wasn't there, John wouldn't be here." I mumbled back, kissing the top of her head.

"Isn't that touching." I looked up and saw Garrus, Samantha, Javik, Ashley, and Joker by the door. Joker looked really upset. All Synthetics. I have to do something.

"We made it." John smiled, getting up after Tali finally got off him. I wasn't allowed to move. Liara has a deathgrip on me. It hurt like hell. "Well, most of us." He grinned, shaking the fake leg. I attempted to lift Liara's head, but she didn't move. I rolled my eyes, removed my arms and shook her.

"No."

"Looks like you're stuck there, sis." John grinned, tapping my shoulder.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"Back to my apartment. I hate hospitals." He paused to kiss Tali on the top of her head before following the retreating figures of the crew with an arm around her waist. With a huff, I bent down and picked my girlfriend up.

"I'm not letting go."

"Thats what I expected." I smiled, being careful to not accidentily hit her on the door.

**Sorry this took a while. I've been getting my heart ripped out by Fallout. **


End file.
